A Special Offences Court of the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja has again convicted and sentenced a serial fraudster, Emmanuel Nwude alongside his two lawyers; Emmanuel Ilechukwu and Rowland Kalu.
Justice Mojisola Dada sentenced the convict and his accomplice to one year imprisonment each for forgery and dealing in forfeited property.
The first to third defendants were arraigned on March 2, 2018 on an amended 15-count charge bordering on conspiracy, forgery, uttering of false documents, dealing with forfeited property, attempt to pervert the cause of justice and fabricating evidence.
After six years, the trial judge found the serial fraudster guilty of forgery of documents of the property that then Lagos State High Court judge, Justice Joseph Olubunmi Oyewole, (now a Supreme Court judge) had ordered Nwude to forfeit to his victims, particularly a Power of Attorney of a forfeited property to one Mankris Ventures Limited.
Recall that Nwude was convicted by a Lagos High Court in 2005 for impersonating Paul Ogwuma, a governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, who had served from October 1, 1993 to May 29, 1999 in order to defraud a Brazilian bank.
The bank, Banco Noroeste, was defrauded of $242million between 1995 and 1998.
As at the time of the incident, it was the third largest bank fraud in history, resulting in the collapse of Banco Noroeste in 2001.
Nwude was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for the fraud in 2005 by Justice Oyewole.
His conviction was the first major conviction for the then newly established EFCC.
